Intelligent Electronic Devices (IED) are typically used for protection, management and supervision of utility substations and industrial power systems. IEDs are durable electronic equipment that, during their designed life, would span across a number of technological advancements and changes. These changes could affect not only the hardware electronics, but also the form factor and size of that hardware. Replacing older IEDs with similar ones is quite difficult since technologies used in the original IED would have been outdated and components would have reached their End Of Life (EOL). Replacing an older technology IED with a more recent one very often requires changing wiring and sometimes dimensions of racks and panels if a new IED form factor is introduced or a different user Input/output interface is used.
Thus, there is a need to permit the transfer and integration of current technology into older IEDs' form-factor while keeping the customer wiring locations unchanged.